News

Taliban capture 9 from helicopter in Afghanistan

The Associated Press

Posted:
04/21/2013 12:46:18 AM PDT

Updated:
04/21/2013 10:41:55 PM PDT

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Said, 26, rests in a hospital ward in Herat city after receiving treatment for the amputation of a leg and an arm by Taliban insurgents, west of Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, April 21, 2013. Two villagers were admitted to a hospital in Herat city in western Afghanistan on Sunday, two days after the Taliban accused them of helping to escort coalition convoys and punished them by cutting a hand and a foot off each man, said Noor Khan Nekzad, a spokesman for provincial chief in Herat province.

KABUL, Afghanistan—Officials say a helicopter owned by an Afghan company has made an emergency landing in a Taliban-controlled area of eastern Afghanistan, and the insurgents took all nine people who were aboard hostage.

A district administrator in the area says the helicopter landed on Sunday afternoon in strong winds and rain in a village of Logar province, southeast of Kabul and about 30 kilometers (or 20 miles) from the Pakistan border.

Hamidullah Hamid said on Monday that the Taliban captured all nine aboard the aircraft and took them from the area. He says the crew and passengers are all civilian.

Logar deputy police chief, Rais Khan Abdul Rahimzai, says the helicopter is owned by the Khaorasan company. He didn't know what cargo it was carrying or where it was heading.